RESEARCH ARTICLE Indian Journal of Clinical Anatomy and Physiology, January – March, 2(1), 1-5 1 EVALUATION OF BLOOD PRESSURE REACTIVITY IN RURAL SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN Amit Kant Singh 1,* , Kirti Jaiswal 2 , KM Shukla 3 , Santosh Kumar Sant 4 , Sandeep Kumar 5 , A N Gayassudin Hyder 6 1,2 Associate Professor, 4 Professor & Head, 6 Lecturer, Department of Physiololgy, 3 Professor & Head, Department of Pediatrics, 5 Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, UP RIMS & R, Saifai, Etawah, 206130, India * Corresponding author: E-mail: amitbhu2008@gmail.com ABSTRACT Background & objectives: Arterial blood pressure is an important physiological parameter in epidemiology of cardiovascular disease. Hypertension has been reported to be generally associated with sympathetic over activity. In the study of hypertension, several authors have made use of a technique, known as Cold Presser Test. It was designed to measure the reactivity of blood pressure to a standard stimulus. Thus this study was undertaken to evaluate the response to the standard stimulus in the school going children. Methods: The study was conducted on healthy school children between the age group of 6.5 years to 11.5 years. The blood pressure was recorded using the standard auscultatory technique and cold pressure test was done as described by Hines & Brown (1932). Individuals were categorized into two groups, depending on their reactivity to cold pressure test as norm reactors (NR) and hyper-reactors (HR). Results: The significant increase (p<0.05) in post-test SBP and DBP was observed in the subjects with the ages of 8.5 years and above. The magnitude of increase in SBP and DBP is in inverse proportion to the age of the subjects. The percentage of hyper- reactors showed an increasing trend with the age. Interpretation & conclusions: As the age has inverse proportion the increase of blood pressure the younger age group children need more caring approach both in school and home and as the percentage of hyper- reactors increase with age and class level this indicates the role of academic level influencing the blood pressure reactivity. Key words: Blood pressure, children, cold pressure test INTRODUCTION Arterial blood pressure, an important physiological parameter has great etiological significance in epidemiology of cardiovascular disease due to its association with age, height, weight, diet, stress, socio- economic status etc.(1) Familial aggregation of hypertension documents an important genetic component. Concordance of blood pressure is greater within families than in unrelated individuals, greater between monozygotic than between dizygotic twins and greater between biological than between adoptive siblings living in same household. About 70% of familial aggregation of blood pressure is attributed to shared genes rather than shared environment.(2) Hypertension has been reported to be generally associated with sympathetic over activity.(3) But the sympathetic response of certain individuals from both normotensive and hypertensive population have been reported to be more pronounced.(4) Previous studies of family history of patients with hypertension have shown a hereditary factor in 76-86% of cases. Essential hypertension is a hereditary disease conveyed as a Mendelian dominant with a rate of expression of more than 90%.(5) In the study of hypertension, several authors have made use of a technique, known as Cold pressure Test. It was introduced by Hines and Brown in 1932. The test is based on the fact that immersion of hand in ice cold water causes a rise of blood pressure. It was designed to measure the reactivity of blood pressure to a standard stimulus.(6) Thus this study was undertaken to evaluate the response to the standard stimulus in the school going children. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was conducted in February 2014 on healthy school children between the age group of 6.5 years to 11.5 years randomly selected 30 students from each class (class 2 nd to class 6 th ) after obtaining the informed written consent of